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Category — Cool Bathrooms and Technology

The mysterious case of the double toilet

The BBC (the BBC!) is reporting on a mysterious double toilet that has appeared in advance of the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Materializing inside the Laura Cross Country Skiing and Biathlon Centre, this double toilet appears poised to humiliate and traumatize athletes from across the world (well, at least from the cold countries).

But seriously, what’s the deal with a double toilet in a brand new facility? All conspiracy theories aside, this is what we know:

1) Two toilets, no partition.

2) One toilet paper dispenser

3) What appear to be the remains of a partition between the two toilets.

Based on these this information it seems like the area was originally designed for one toilet (one TP dispenser). However, we can guess that toilet was never installed in the middle, as there is no evidence of moving a toilet. So it seems like somebody installed the first toilet on one side, and then had the brilliant idea of installing another in the remaining space. At first they put up a partition, but then realized the partition prevented the second toilet from accessing the TP. That’s where the insanity started. For whatever reason (no budget to buy one?) rather than install a second TP dispenser, they simply removed the partition allowing the second toilet access to the first dispenser (if you can call reaching across somebody else access).

Think I’ll stick to pooping at home thank you very much!

January 24, 2014   2 Comments

Toilet Seats, Keyboards and Makeup Brushes

A few years ago it was all the rage to do a study showing how much more bacteria there was on your keyboard than a toilet seat – heck, we even mentioned one of those studies here at the ICBE. Does it really surprise anybody that a toilet seat, that you clean on a regular basis, has fewer random bacteria than your keyboard, which you clean never?

In any case, a commenter on a post about a new beauty blog over at Metafilter summarized exactly what I think is wrong with all these studies (the beauty blog found a bunch of bacteria in a makeup brush, FYI):

OK, but there’s no evidence whatsoever that microbes on a makeup brush cause disease. Mostly it’s a meaningless gross-out demonstration, like when they compare how clean “X” is versus “a toilet seat”. (Hint: the average container of Yoplait has about 3.5 gazillion times more microbes.)

Is that yogurt dirty and dangerous? No, it’s delicious!

May 7, 2013   No Comments

iPotty for iPad

CTA Digital bills itself as offering “Quality Gaming and Multimedia Accessories“, but as far as I can tell from their website they mostly sell a lot of junk. That’s all about to change though, as the company recently released the iPotty at CES!

This isn’t rocket surgery people, this is a $40 potty for kids that comes with an integrated iPad stand. Now I’m more of an old-school kind of guy myself, using books, toys and bribery to keep my little ones planted and on task, but there’s no denying that our society is moving towards an “all iPads, all the time” model of parenting. And this certainly beats handing your kid your iPad, and then watching as they drop it on the floor and pee all over it…

Thanks to Mrs DC for the heads up!

January 11, 2013   1 Comment

Paper Towels > Air Blowers

A recent study has concluded that paper towels are superior to air blowers for drying your hands off. Which comes as a surprise to absolutely nobody who has ever used one of those old school blow driers which are absolute pieces of crap.

I have some very clear memories of spending forever trying to get my hands dry at the local McDonald’s because they used those blowers there, and never really succeeding. Has anybody ever actually used one of those to get their hands completely dry? Now something like the Dyson Airblade does a credible job of actually drying your hands off, but it still lacks a couple of advantages that paper towels have:

  1. You can use a paper towel to open the door bathroom door without directly touching it
  2. You can use a paper towel to clean up random spills

Now #1 is a problem we shouldn’t have. Public bathroom doors should always open outwards. And if space is available, the doors can be removed entirely and replaced by those curvy hallways that prevent you from seeing in (aka airport style). And #2 doesn’t happen often, but if you are out and about and spill something or just generally need a cleanup, it’s nice to be able to pop into the bathroom and grab some questionably absorbent paper towels.

Good luck cleaning up a spill with a bloody Airblade!

If you want to read more, there’s some interesting commentary at Techdirt, one of the few sites on the internet where you actually want to read the comments!

January 8, 2013   2 Comments

How Do Astronauts Poop In Space?

How do astronauts poop in space? The answer, as you might expect, is very carefully:

If the astronaut isn’t positioned correctly over the vacuum of the toilet, solid waste could get smeared on the toilet and the astronaut. In a worse-case scenario, some might escape and start floating around the space vehicle.

Floating space poop – fantastic! I’ve never really been one of those people who had a burning desire to visit space, and I really have to say that until NASA or whoever sorts out their shit (pun – clever!) and designs a decent space toilet, I don’t see my opinion changing anytime soon.

The Examiner goes into great detail in a two part series:

Part I
Part II

January 3, 2013   No Comments

WristPull?!

It was almost two years ago that I posted about the Toepener and StepNpull, both of which appear to have functioning websites, and both of which promise a hygienic way to open bathroom doors with your feet.

Enter the WristPull, a hygienic way to open doors with your wrist, which frankly might be a little more convenient for those of us who are a bit sketchy in the balance department. Except with a Twitter account that hasn’t updated since June, and a non-functional website, I’m not convinced these guys are even still in business.

All hail our foot-based hygienic door-opening overlords?

January 2, 2013   No Comments

Toilet of Doom Part II

You know that awesome bathroom I wrote about the other day? Well, things have gone from bad to worse. Actually, maybe that’s not fair. It could in fact be that the toilet disappearing completely is in fact an improvement over the previous situation

My on-the-scene reporters were not going to just let this story be, and waged a length campaign to track down the missing toilet. You know, they looked in the shower. Yep, there it is…

I wish I could have listened in on the though process that ended with yeah, let’s just put that darn thing over there in the shower!

September 18, 2012   No Comments

Disneyland’s Secret Bathroom

I’m going to admit something right now – I’m not a frequent visitor of The Happiest Place On Earth even though I live only a couple of hours drive away. All that may change however now that I know this about Disneyland:

Disneyland has an awesome secret restroom!

Okay, it’s difficult to call something a secret when it has a rather extensive website devoted to it, but Disneyland’s Slightly Off the Beaten Track Restroom doesn’t exactly have the same ring to it.

The site puts it like this:

The moment you open its door (assume it’s unlocked), you will be overwhelmed by just how enormous the Secret Restroom is. As a point of fact, the Secret Restroom is not only larger than the average American home restroom, it’s larger than the typical Anaheim apartment that can be afforded on a Disneyland castmember’s starting salary.

Because the Secret Restroom is cleaned every half hour, it is always in a state of perfection and readiness, and even a glance shows the luxuriance of its copious amenities and artistic touches (each of which is detailed elsewhere on this site).

Heaven is a place where they clean public bathrooms every thirty minutes!

Disneyland’s Secret Restroom (via BoingBoing)

May 7, 2012   No Comments

A World Paved With Toilets

There’s a lot of things I would buy used, but I’d never buy a used toilet – and I don’t think I’m the only one that feels that way. So what happens to old toilets? They end up in landfills, but that might start to change if the city of Bellingham has anything to say about it.

That’s right, they used poticrete – concrete mixed with 20% recycled toilets – to complete part of a trail system in the city. This may not save the world, but it’s a start!

Read the entire article and check out more sweet pictures here.

via mhh5th

March 14, 2012   No Comments

Urinal Gaming All Over Again

What do you get when you mount some Windows 7 powered tables above urinals? A pee powered collection of video games for guys that get bored really easily. My first thought when I saw this was: Hang on, other guys are going to touch their junk, then touch the screen, and them I’m supposed to touch the screen? Why don’t I just go ahead and touch their junk directly?

The good news is that you don’t appear to need to touch the screen to play, as it automatically senses your activity. Still, I spotted a screen with high scores – how did those get in here?

Read the full article and watch at video at BBC News (via bah)

PS: Your-rye-nal?
PPS: Previously

November 30, 2011   1 Comment